US issues list of 'blocked' Iranian aircraft

“Today’s actions seek to disrupt the flow of weapons and communications equipment to the Syrian regime and help prevent their use against the Syrian people,” Treasury Under-Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen said.

“The identification of Iranian aircraft also further highlights Iran’s ongoing effort to support the Assad regime’s WMD programmes and crackdown against the Syrian people.”

The designated planes are operated by Iran Air, Mahan Air, and Yas Air.

In the summer of 2012, Iran used Iran Air and Mahan Air flights between Tehran and Damascus to send military and crowd control equipment to the Syrian regime. This activity was coordinated with Hezbollah ...

Iran has used deceptive measures when shipping such items to Syria, by using a combination of passenger and cargo flights and declaring illicit cargo as humanitarian and other licit goods.

In the case of Yas Air, the Iranian cargo airline has moved IRGC-QF [Revolutionary Guards] personnel and weapons under the cover of humanitarian aid.

For example, a Turkish inspection in March 2011 of a Yas Air flight bound for Syria – which listed “auto spare parts” on its cargo manifest – found weapons including Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifles, machine guns, nearly 8,000 rounds of ammunition, as well as an assortment of mortar shells.

Mahan Air was designated ... for providing financial, material, and technological support to the IRGC-QF. Based in Tehran, Mahan Air has provided transportation, funds transfers and personnel travel services to the IRGC-QF, including IRGC-QF personnel flown to and from Iran and Syria for military training.

Updated at 5.35pm BST

4.56pm BST

Two blasts reported in Damascus

The Syrian government news agency is reporting two explosions in a suburb of Damascus, causing "many" casualties.

It says the first bomb went off near a secondary school in the Qudsayya suburb followed by a second explosion about 200 meters away. The agency says school students were not among those hurt.

Updated at 5.02pm BST

4.10pm BST

23 bodies found in southern Damascus

The bodies of 23 men have been found in the Hajar al-Aswad district of southern Damascus, according to an activist in the area.

In a Skype interview with our colleague Mona Mahmood, activist Abu Abdullah described the discovery of the bodies.

Yesterday the Syrian army stormed al-Jazeera neighbourhood. It lies at the entrance of the Hajar al-Aswad district and the Yarmouk refugee camp.

Soon afterwards people found the bodies of 23 men. Most of the bodies were scattered in the streets, some were in a doorway. All of them were executed by shabiha militia. Four of them were butchered with knives, others had gun shots wounds in the chest or ead. The youngest victim was 16.

Some looked as if they had been killed the before yesterday - they may have been killed by snipers.

All the bodies were taken to Palestine hospital which is under the control of the Ahmed Jibril militia. People were able to identify only a some of the bodies. Most of people were scared to go to the hospital as the Jibril militia is pro-regime.

None of those killed were members of the Free Syrian Army. When an FSA man is hit or killed, other FSA men will take him away immediately. FSA men kept warning people not to go back to their homes as the situation is very risky.

Some of the residents were able to identify one or two bodies. A man found his brother among the bodies. Another man was able to identify his uncle and his cousin.

The FSA pulled out of the district today, but they will get back soon cause most of them are defected soldiers from Hajar al-Aswad itself.

Updated at 4.14pm BST

3.43pm BST

Eight Kurds killed at Turkey-Syria border crossing

The media in Turkey is reporting the death of eight Kurdish activists in a battle for control of the Tal Abyad border crossing, amid speculation that Syrian rebels, or Turkish troops killed them, according to the Turkish journalist Mehmet Aksakal.

He said the area is known as a stronghold for Kurdish activists and was not under control of the Syrian military before yesterday's battle.

Speaking to the Guardian from a neighbouring province on the Turkish border, Aksakal said:

It is possible that the Syrian army may not have been involved. Some sources say the PKK was trying to get control of the border yesterday and trying to put a Kurdish flag there. And the FSA clashed with those people and killed Kurds. The Turkish government doesn’t want to mention that the FSA fought with Kurds, so they say the Syrian army [were involved]. It is possible that there was no Syrian army there at all.

We can’t get exact information, but pro-government newspapers say eight Kurds have been killed.

We are not even sure if FSA were involved, because Turkish troops were at the border. It is very difficult to get reliable information about what exactly happened ... Nothing has been confirmed from the Syrian government or the Kurds yet.

The area to the east and west of the crossing has been controlled by Kurds for some time, but there were some Syrian government officials in Tal Abyad sharing power with Kurds, Aksakal explained.

The Turkish government is unhappy that this area is controlled by Kurds, especially the PYD [Democratic Union Party] which is a wing of the PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party]. The Turkish government would definitely want the FSA to control this area.

Tel Abyad is a minor border point compared to the international crossings in Kilis and Hatay provinces which the FSA gained control of during the summer.

Aksakal added:

Tel Abyad is a small town. There is nothing so strategically important for the Syrian government to send troops to get it back.

Symbolically it’s important for the rebels and the Turkish government.

The map below shows the crossing point between the Turkish town of Akcakale and the Syrian town of Tal Abyad.

Updated at 3.44pm BST

3.35pm BST

Saudis deny blocking Syrian pilgrims

Saudi Arabia has denied barring Syrians from taking part in next month's hajj (the annual pilgrimage to Mecca), according to AFP.

The news agency quotes hajj ministry undersecretary Hatem Qadi as saying "the kingdom is currently working on finalising all measures needed in coordination with the concerned authorities to enable Syrian pilgrims to perform" the pilgrimage.

Earlier, the Syrian government had accused Saudi Arabia of failing to sign the the required pilgrimage agreement on time.

2.32pm BST

Clashes continue at Turkey-Syria border crossing

Clashes are reported to be continuing at the Tal Abyad border crossing, according to Turkish journalist Mehmet Aksakal.

This is all part of the strategy to create mass panic and mass confusion here, because Nato has obviously failed in its military strategy to create a military solution here and so instead what we are seeing is a massive psychological operation going on to try and weaken the Libyan government in that way.

She also said:

Of course we know that at the beginning of the crisis and continuously, the international media, the western media – and al-Jazeera in particular – has been responsible for a number of really grave lies.

Of course there was the lie that Gaddafi was attacking his own people, which thanks to the satellites of Russian intelligence proved that there were no such attacks from the air that took place; we had the lie that the Libyan government was hiring mercenaries from African countries.

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad meets Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi in Damascus on 19 September. Salehi said the solution to the war in Syria lies "only in Syria and within the Syrian family". Photograph: Louai Beshara/AFP/Getty Images

Updated at 3.01pm BST

1.18pm BST

Rebels pull out of three Damascus districts

An activist in Damascus has confirmed the withdrawal of rebel fighters from three southern districts in the capital.

Speaking to our colleague Mona Mahmood, Abu Hamza, described the stench of dead bodies, after a week of clashes.

Yesterday at 4.30 in the morning all Free Syrian Army brigades pulled out of southern suburbs of Damascus: al-Qadem, al-Assali and al-Hajar al-Aswad. The whole areas has sustained great destruction after a week-long fight.

Al-Qadem district is still under heavy bombardment from mortars and tanks, even though the FSA has left.

The Syrian soldiers are combing the district. Tanks have not entered for fear of FSA fighters still hiding inside the houses. Civilians are very scared about the aftermath of the fight.

The FSA men decided to pull out, after Assad's forces used barrels loaded with TNT explosives against al-Hajar al-Aswad, Sbina and Medina districts. The barrels were thrown by war planes. They caused massive damage.

The FSA also ran out of ammunition and got no support or cover from other areas of Damascus. They were worried that the Syrian army would block surrounding areas and sandwich them in.

During a week of fighting, the FSA destroyed eight tanks. They decided to fight in al-Qadem district because most of its people have already left and they wanted to exhaust the Syrian army and shabiha militia by launching a guerrilla war.

All the FSA brigades have fled to the countryside now and are meeting to decide when they will be able to launch another attack. This is not the first time the FSA has pulled out.

Our big problem now is that we can't get out of our houses to find about the causalities. Muhammed Baraka, a son of a local cleric, was killed yesterday by shabiha gangs as he was heading back to the al-Qadem Grand mosque for afternoon prayers.

The decomposed body, of a man who appeared to have been executed, was also found inside one of the houses. Putrid smells are overwhelming the district.

Snipers are preventing us reaching other houses. We are waiting for the situation to ease and the army to pull out to start checking the area.

12.51pm BST

'Iran at war with Syrian people' – SNC

Syria’s main opposition group has rejected Tehran's proposal for ending the violence in Syria, and dismissed Iran as part of the problem.

He also rejected a nine-point plan put forward by Iran’s foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi before his visit to Damascus today.

Saleh said the plan assumed both sides were engaged in same level of violence.

They [the Syrian army] are shooting with all their weapons, from airplanes to tanks, to attack civilians. Civilians are merely attempting to defend themselves, yet the Iranian proposal is almost blaming both parties.

It [Iran] is talking about observers. We are way beyond that point. International observers from the UN did not succeed. It seems to be another way for Iran to give some life into a dead government.

Bahrain urged to implement UN report

Bahrain's foreign minister said today that the kingdom accepts 145 out of 176 recommendations in a report from the UN Human Rights Council – but rights activists are calling for urgent implementation.

The government has been accused of stalling over earlier recommendations from the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), which documented serious and systematic human rights violations by Bahraini authorities in crushing peaceful pro-democracy protests in 2011.

“Bahrain’s acceptance of most recommendations [in the UN report] needs to be quickly followed by releasing leaders of peaceful protests, holding accountable high officials responsible for policies of torture, and adopting broader reforms to uphold human rights,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

“The government has been claiming for months that it accepts the recommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry but continues to stall on the core issues and to deny that political detainees are still in Bahraini jails.”

In a statement issued today, Human Rights Watch said:

The [UN] recommendations Bahrain accepted included more than a dozen calling on the government to hold security forces accountable for rights abuses, including wrongful deaths and mistreatment of detainees in government custody.

Other recommendations called for the immediate release of prisoners convicted solely for exercising their rights to peaceful assembly and free speech during pro-democracy demonstrations in February and March 2011.

Bahrain also asserted in its response to the [UN] recommendations that it had dropped all charges related to freedom of expression and that the authorities have taken steps to investigate past and present human rights abuses.

But Bahrain did not respond to concerns that its Penal Code and law regulating associations fall short of international human rights standards. Nor did it respond to concerns that the penal code and associations law also allow for detaining people solely for exercising their rights to free speech and association.

Despite its denials, the government continues to imprison people convicted solely for participating in peaceful protests.

11.23am BST

Syrians 'banned' from this year's hajj

Syrians will not be allowed to take part in next month's hajj – the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca – because of disagreements with the Saudi government, according to Sana, the official news agency in Damascus.

“The Syrian Supreme Hajj Committee has banned this season’s pilgrimage because the Saudi Ministry of Hajj did not sign the pilgrimage agreement on time, although the committee met all required procedures,” the agency said yesterday.

There has been no word on this yet from Saudi Arabia.

A blog post on the website of the US-based Middle East Institute says that although tensions over the conflict in Syria are presumably to blame, this is a highly unusual development.

Saudi Arabia has long imposed national quotas on hajj pilgrims based on the originating country's Muslim population, and has sometimes sharply reduced quotas due to political issues.

In 1987, after years of tension, clashes broke out with Iranian pilgrims and some 400 people died; Iran and Saudi Arabia broke relations and the Saudis sharply reduced Iran's hajj quota by more than half, but did not eliminate it. Iran boycotted the hajj for three years as a protest, but that decision came from the Iranian side, not the Saudis.

These reports are already provoking some comment on the internet; the hajj has almost never been affected by political disputes, aside from the Iranian case in the 1980s.

11.12am BST

Syrian Christians form rebel brigade

Video has emerged purporting to show the formation of Christian brigade of the Free Syrian Army.

Our colleague Mona Mahmood translates the masked commander saying:

We the Christian young men of the revolution declare the formation of Anssarullah brigade in the Damascus countryside. We are honest soldiers who will defend the land with our Muslim brothers.

The video cannot be independently verified. A new report by the Swedish Institute for International Affairs, which we discussed yesterday, said "virtually all members of the armed insurgent groups" that have formed so far have been made up of Sunni Arabs.

France fears embassy attacks over cartoons

Security at French embassies around the world has been reinforced after the Paris-based satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo published cartoons mocking the prophet Muhammad, Kim Willsher reports.

Amid continuing protests by Muslims around the globe over a controversial anti-Islam film, French ministers and religious leaders called for restraint, and riot police were posted outside the magazine's offices.

France's prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, said in a statement: "In the current climate, the prime minister wishes to stress his disapproval of all excesses and calls on everyone to behave responsibly."

In the latest development, France24 is reporting that 20 French embassies will be closed on Friday as a precautionary measure.

Future for Alawites if Assad falls

Are they meant to leave the cities and resume their traditional links with the rural areas? A new generation of Syria pundits in the West is already discussing the possibility of a separate Alawite state, but one hears of no such thing from the Alawites themselves.

Syria has long been their central project, and their mode of involvement has been to leave their villages and move towards a version of modernity. It is conceivable that they will end up in some form of autonomous enclave as a result of a civil war in which the opposition gains the upper hand, but it is not their wish. They believe they are fighting for the old Ba’athist ideals of Syrian and Arab nationalism.

An Alawite state would not be viable in any case: the old Alawite heartlands have never had much in the way of utilities or employment opportunities and the community would be dependent on outside backers such as Russia or Iran. A Lebanese solution for Syria, in which different areas have different outside backers, may be the end result, but it is nobody’s goal.

10.43am BST

Bashar is indecisive and manipulated, says his uncle

It's not suggested that Bushra has defected (in the sense of joining the opposition) but she is said to have feared for her safety, along with that of her children. One of the websites reporting the claim – www.All4Syria.info, which is owned by an opposition figure – said that Bushra had previously lived in the UAE during a brief rift with her brother.

Meanwhile, the president's exiled uncle, Rifaat al-Assad, has given an interview to Paris Match in which he portrays Bashar as hopelessly indecisive and says that nobody is really in charge of Syria any more.

Bashar has been incapable of taking the necessary decisions. He has always had recourse to those in charge of the services and senior officers. All the time he was asking Tlass and Khaddam for their opinions. He was manipulated. It's sad.

Asked who governs Syria today, Rifaat continues:

There's Walid al-Muallem and Farouq al-Sharaa, the vice-president, who is very sick. In the army, there is not a single true decision-maker. In the services we can count Mohamed Nassif, Ali Mamlouk, Ali Younes. The defence minister has no power, nor the head of the army.

In the current government there are really no important people. There's Bashar's uncle, Mohammed Makhlouf, his son Hafez and his brother Rami Hafez. Apart from these people I just mentioned, no one governs Syria. President asks for advice from everyone. He reads the reports of the mukhabarat [intelligence services] about the rumours in the country. But in Syria, rumours abound – and the president gives them too much importance.

10.36am BST

Clarification on Iranian proposals

EA World View takes issue with the original headline on this blog.

It says it is misleading to suggest that Iran will put forward it nine-point plan in Damascus.

The reports are based on an article in Iran's Mehr; however, the website is clear that this was merely the Iranian position presented on Monday in Cairo to a meeting of Foreign Ministers of the contact group.

Syria's chemical weapons plan

Syria plans to use chemical weapons, the former head of the country’s chemical arsenal, told the Times. Major-General Adnan Sillu, who defected three months ago, told the paper [paywall]:

We were in a serious discussion about the use of chemical weapons, including how we would use them and in what areas. We discussed this as a last resort – such as if the regime lost control of an important area such as Aleppo ...

They wanted to place warheads with the chemical weapons on missiles – to transfer them this way to Hezbollah. It was for use against Israel, of course.

Rebels raise flag at border crossing

Footage showed Syrian rebels taking down the Syrian flag on top of a government building at the Tel Abyad border gate. The sound of sporadic gunfire could be heard and black smoke rose from parts of the building, which appeared to be a customs office.

It was not immediately clear whether the rebels had seized control of the whole crossing.

The governor's office in the small town of Akcakale, on the Turkish side of the border post, ordered all schools in the town and the neighbouring villages to close for one day for security reasons and banned all agricultural work in the area.

"A heavy hail of bullets is landing here. We are scared. We had to stay in another house last night. We don't know what to do," one man in his forties told CNN Turk television.

"Teachers, everyone have left the school next to us, they have fled the area," he said.

The map shows four key border crossing between Turkey and Aleppo, including Tel Abyad – the furthest to the east.

Updated at 11.19am BST

9.25am BST

Rebels withdraw from southern Damascus

The Free Syrian Army is reported to have withdrawn from a district of southern Damascus, a day after the government claimed to have "cleaned" the area.

In an attempt to project calm in the midst of relentless violence, Syria’s Education Ministry ordered schools to open this week. Instead of calm, however, the schools reflected what had happened in the rest of the country during the summer: the fighting had grown worse, the routines of daily life more dangerous and education had become one more casualty of the unrest.